Kyoto University (redirected from Kyoto National University)

Kyoto University 

one of the leading and oldest national universities of Japan. It was founded in 1897 by imperial decree as a college for physics and mathematics and engineering. In the 1920’s the following colleges were incorporated in Kyoto University: law (founded in 1889), medicine (1899), philology (1906), economics (1919), and agriculture (1923). These colleges were turned into faculties. In 1915 the physics and mathematics and engineering faculty was divided into two faculties: natural sciences and engineering. In addition, education and pharmacy faculties were founded.

In the 1971 academic year Kyoto University had the following faculties: philology, education, law, economics, natural sciences, medicine, pharmacy, agriculture, and engineering. There were also 15 research institutions, including institutes for chemical research, fundamental physics, mathematical sciences, economic research, humanistic studies, disaster prevention, virus research, and nutrition studies. Within the faculties there were also scientific institutions—for example, under the faculty of natural sciences there were 15, including institutions for geophysics, volcanology, and seismology, an astronomical observatory, and a meteorological institute. The university also has a library (founded in 1899), botanical gardens, and historical and archaeological museums. The university has a student body of more than 14,000 and a faculty of 558 professors, including Hideki Yukawa, the prominent physicist and Nobel Prize winner.